Hispanic voters aren't expected to have an outsize impact on Georgia's U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races since they represent just under 2 percent of the state's total registered voters, according to a report released Thursday by the Pew Research Center.
Based on data from Georgia’s Secretary of State Office, the report shows Georgia is home to 92,000 registered Hispanic voters. They represent 1.8 percent of the state’s 5.1 million total registered voters.
Still, Hispanic voters could make a difference in Georgia’s Senate and gubernatorial races, if they remain as close as recent polls are indicating.
For Georgia’s U.S. House districts, the percentages of eligible Hispanic voters – those who are 18 or older and are U.S. citizens — range between 2.1 and 4.8 percent. The exception is the 7th Congressional District, where the number is 10.3 percent. Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall of Lawrenceville is heavily favored to win reelection in that district over Democrat Thomas Wight.
Nationwide, a record 2.5 million Hispanics are now eligible to vote this year’s midterm elections, according to the Pew report. That makes up 11 percent of eligible voters nationwide.
Yet despite their growth, Hispanics make up smaller shares of eligible voters in states with close Senate and gubernatorial races. In eight other states with close Senate races, just 4.7 percent of eligible voters on average are Hispanics. Those states are: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and North Carolina.
“As a result,” the report says, “the impact of Latino voters in determining which party controls the U.S. Senate may not be as large as might be expected given their growing electoral and demographic presence nationwide.”
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